Binge Drinking...
 

I was discussing binge drinking at a meeting a while back, and one of the comments I got was to the effect that students wouldn't drink so many beers in such a short time if it were legal. They need to get away with it fast, or the parties are short, or God knows what other reason...

Any thoughts? This has been bouncing around my head for a while.

--T

OK, plenty out there on it over the years of this board.

But... the question.

If it were legal to drink at say... 18, would there be less binge drinking?

Yes.

I hear those British folks don't drink much.

-Rudey

You're not going to change the legal drinking age...

So instead: plan a lot of workshops on Evil Alcohol, Responsible and Mature Alcohol Management, get members to rotate duty as Designated Drivers, card your members at the door to any event, show them graphic images of what happens when you drink and drive, bring in the university police and convicted DUI's to scare them, and keep them in line.

Fun, isn't it?

Nope, the Brits/Irish (I live in Northern Ireland...theyre both), DO drink quite a bit, but the culture of binge drinking/drinking games doesn't exist. It's far more social. Also, DUI rules here are STRICT and enforced (you lose your DL on the first offense), so everyone takes a taxi. The pub is considered an extention of your home, a social center. You'll see everyone from uni students to moms with prams in the pub at all hours of the day. The lunchtime pint is a deeply held tradition as well.

I rarely make statements like that without a followup.

A google search brings up 390,000 results for British "Binge Drinking".

Binge Drinking spreading from Britain to other parts of Europe:
http://www.time.com/time/europe/html/051219/story.html
That same article states "Alcohol is estimated to be a factor in 20-30% of British accidents and 47% of violent crimes."

From Wikipedia:
In the UK, the government has introduced measures to deter disorderly behavior and sales of alcohol to people under 18, with special provisions in place during the holiday season. In January 2005, it was reported that 1 million admissions to UK accident and emergency units each year are alcohol-related; in many cities, Friday and Saturday nights are by far the busiest periods for ambulance services.

In 2005, the Licensing Act 2003 came into effect in the UK, partly intended to tackle binge drinking. Some observers, however, believe it will exacerbate the problem, especially with the advent of 24 hour licensing.

The culture of drinking in the UK is markedly different from that of most other European nations (although it is very similar to that of the Republic of Ireland). In mainland Europe, alcohol tends to be consumed more slowly over the course of an evening, often accompanied by a restaurant meal. In the UK, by contrast, alcohol is generally consumed rapidly, leading much more readily to drunkenness. While being drunk in mainland Europe is widely viewed as being socially unacceptable, in the UK the reverse is true in many social circles. Particularly amongst young adults, there is often a certain degree of social pressure to get drunk during a night out. This culture is increasingly becoming viewed by politians and the media as a serious problem that ought to be tackled, partly due to health reasons, but mostly due to its association with violence and anti-social behaviour.

British universities are a major culprit for binge-drinking in amongst their students. One university in the South East of England makes over £1.2 Million per annum from alcohol sales in the student union bar alone. The student unions have endless drinks promotions, and are fuelling the problem. British women are turning to binge-drinking in larger numbers than ever before.

The French soccer player David Ginola commented:

"I was amazed when I came to this country at the way the women here behave,' he said. From London to Newcastle to Leeds to Manchester I saw women vomiting in the streets. It is disgusting the way they behave. In France the women will only drink a little bit. In this country the women try and keep up with the men, drink for drink. The women behave like men in sex as well as drink. In France they are much more sophisticated and modest. That is why I will not bring my children up here. I don't want my daughter to be an English woman."

-Rudey
--So you are wrong?

Here's an interesting article from Time on this subject.




"Across the European Union, 13% of 15- to 16-year-olds have been drunk more than 20 times in their life, and 18% have "binged" — drunk the equivalent of a bottle of wine in one sitting — three or more times in the last month."

What do you think the percentage for US 15-16 year olds would be?

Lord... I can't imagine anything like that.

Maybe I'm naive? I do have a really well-behaved 15-year-old.

And a google search brings up 1,520,000 for American binge drinking.

Edit to fix number transposition.

oops.

That's a good way to not admit you were wrong (you were wrong in this post too given that the number of google hits is 1,170,000), but the post, the laws, the news all speak for themselves on how bad British binge drinking is.

You were wrong. :)

-Rudey
--Throwing in Irish/English slang into your posts every now and then doesn't make you an expert on British binge drinking.

I got 1,190,000 plus another 649,000 for Amerincan and binge-drinking (hyphen included).

and googling it once doesn't make you an expert either.

"You're not going to change the legal drinking age..."

And please don't write an essay about it for Comp. We composition teachers have read TOO MANY of those!

;)

Actually I didn't say I was an expert. I had already read about it in several articles - everything from England looking into changing pub hours to soccer hooligans (great book that detailed how to suck someone's eyeballs out and how much weight to apply to an ear to rip it off...won lots of awards) to people that join these vacation groups (stag fests involving hookers and weapons) to go to Eastern Europe/Hungary while completely drunk. It's in the news a lot.

So you said something that was wrong, I provided you with sources, and that's that right? I mean I don't understand where your hostility is coming from. If you're angry because you were wrong take it out on the English who have a problem with binge drinking, not me. I'm sweet :)

-Rudey
--I bet you dress like a chav

Not today, my tracksuit is away to the cleaners.

Hah. I actually think chavs make the british much more fun.

-Rudey

really? are you arguing over something on the internet??

who cares who is right or wrong...her post provoked another to look for more information didn't it??

okay end of conversation and move on with your lives...they're has to be something more worth while to talk about than who was right or wrong...

like the topic that was introduced at the first post.

my opinion is that America is a very different society than other countries. We are an over-indulging country. Everything we do is in excess. So would binge-drinking be less of a problem if it were legal at the age of 18? probably not if you follow that theorey. But I have many theories about this issue. That's just one of them.

Binge drinking would be less of a problem if college students were more effectivly educated on the risks.

I am sure if all of us were at the Founding of Our Greek Organizations, there was a form of imbibing in some form or another.

But, I wish I had the answer for Binge Drinking. It is not just Kids being Kids.

Granted, Europeans have a drinking problem and not just socially. That is why the PUBs used to close in the after noons.

They drank as fast as they could before the Pubs closed. That is not social.

That is there and this is here.

Todays problems stem from I look ouot for # 1 and the hell with everyone else.

If someone is getting overly drunk, why is there not someone to say Hey Bro/Sis, slow it down and take care of them!

One of the proudest moments when I went back to visit the Chapter, there was a designated driver who would go pick someone up so they wouldnt drive.

:cool:

Be Your Brothers/Sisters keeper first and foremost!

Back in college, the Ohio drinking for 3.2 beer was 18.

We played drinking games all the time. Many of us did it several times a week. I think that's binge drinking, even with a different name.

I really doubt that lowering the drinking age would lower binge drinking -- no matter how you define it.

Since we didn't need fake ID's to buy beer, we wanted them to buy hard liquor.

I like this. Did they just rotate who stayed sober on a given night or weekend?

Be very careful about having set designated driver schedules. It can open liability up to the chapter. God forbid the DD has a car accident.

ex) True story. DD picks up drunken sis. DD has a major life threatening accident. DD was sober but had drunk the night before and is underage. DD has a BAC of .01, loses license eventhough under the states legal limit and has DUI on record. :( To top it all off the drunken sis has a lame insurance policy that doesn't cover guest driver for the full policy limits. I work in auto claims. It is very scary stuff sometimes.

Do ya'll use pledges as DD's? We usually did.

On another note, we need to get realistic about binge drinking. Like most other things in the alcohol realm, the numbers presented are just absurd. I'm not sure what the number is, but when I remember seeing it, something like more than 5 drinks is considered binge drinking. Just about everyone in college does that. The fact that plenty of people here would easily drink a case and a half a weekend, and nobody thought twice about it, makes me think those numbers should be raised. Personally, the majority of guys I know can drink 5-6 beers without any real impairment. I realize reaction time may be slowed, but it really is not even noticable. I'm not condoning the use of alcohol in these amounts, I'm sure it is unhealthy...but for the huge majority of people 8 beers is not putting you at much risk in and of itself.

That's kind of a broad and unsupported generalization you're making...

shinerbock appropriate name for the thread. And my favorite beer. ;)


All students at my school do a program in New Student Orientation called about "the optimal buzz" they teach you that if you're going to drink, you should go for the optimal buzz and then stop. And teach you how to calculate that by your body weight. Because you're going to have the most fun if you're not blacking out, vomiting, passing out, and making your friends take care of you and call EMS. I love the program, it's great for a few reasons:

1) it's realistic, in that it understands that people are going to drink no matter what, and doesn't just say DRINKING BAD!

2)It teaches responsible social drinking, and...

3)It does it in a way that appeals to students. It makes sense and sounds most fun to drink to the peak of your 'high' and not past that.

True, some what of a generalization. I should have said England was the Country that closed the Pubs from 2:00 to 4:00. But that has been changed as it seems that they binged beer before the Pubs closed for 2 Hours.

Maybe in the old days it was not called binge drinking but just partying?

I guess the definition of Bingeing is different to Me than to some. Bingeing is just swilling as Much Booze as one can in a short period of time while social drinking is sitting, dancing, playing pool etc. Just My take of course.

When the yoke of parental control is taken off, it can lead to going a little crazy for some. So, then who needs to be in control? Maybe The Greek Brotehrs/Sisters would/should take up the task.

As far as a designated Driver, it was usually an Active for more responsibility. What is sad, that when a group does try to do the right thing, there is always a situation as mentioned above that dashes the plan on the rocks.:(

We always had a pledge DD. Usually 2 or 3, and only on weekend nights, thurs - sat. Worked out real well.

I don't think we can stop binge drinking with any simple solution such as lowering the drinking age. As SigmaPezY60 mentioned earlier, we are a very over-indulgent society. There are many incoming freshmen that think college is going to be wild parties, lots of sex, and excesses in general. They think it's going to be Animal House, Old School, Van Wilder, etc. all rolled into one. And if that's what they're looking for, they can find it. When my parents' friends ask me about Penn State (because they're worried about their high school senior who is going there next year), I tell them that Penn State is what you make of it (as is every other college). If they want to party every night and not study and not go to class and fail classes, that's their choice. If they want to work hard and excel in their classes, that's also their choice. They are going to be adults. No one is going to hold their hand and make sure they go to class and do their homework. And so, I think the only way to prevent binge drinking (as well as drug use and unsafe sex) is to educate young people about the consequences and to teach them to make wise, healthy decisions. I think a big part of that is parents explicitly sharing their values with their children, letting their children know what is expected of them (such as no drug use, no underage drinking, drinking in moderation, no pre-marital sex, no unprotected sex, etc.)

Using Penn State as an example, there are plenty of people over 21 that binge drink. It's not a matter of a certain number being the magic age. It's about teaching young people to be mature, independent thinkers. And it's about teaching young people to deal with their problems in healthy ways (exercise, talking to friends, talking to parents, going for a walk to calm down, etc.) rather than using alcohol or drugs to deal with stress and hurt feelings. One of my best friends from freshmen year had been through rehab, had been bulimic, and had been a cutter. And she said it had been because she felt like she had no one to talk to and she felt like her mom had been too busy for her. And through rehab, she realized that drugs weren't the solution. She was just numbing herself. Her problems were still always there. She still felt neglected and alone, and she had to confront her mom and tell her all these things she was feeling. And afterwards, she was more able to talk to her mom about whatever was bothering her. They talked on the phone all the time, and whenever she was having a conflict about anything, she would call her mother up. So, I think communication is the biggest key and that parents can the biggest positive influence if the lines of communication are open.

Tom that's true. Short of blacking out, I wouldn't label any form of drinking as binge drinking.

-Rudey

This is a nice sentiment that we'll be confident enough to know when to stop but the other half is changing the culture of drinking behind closed doors. When underage drinkers are about to do go out what do they do? They take a whole bunch of shots, playing some game and then they leave, they don't drink over an extended period of time. When they get up, they experience a different level of intoxication than when they had been sitting. My college tried to discourage games, but wouldn't card anyone who was just walking around campus w/an open container drinking. The idea was that if we were out being social at common spots we'd be less likely to down x number of shots in a short time period. And when something did go wrong, we'd also be more likely to call for help w/out fear of punishment. I won't lie, we did have probelms occasionally. There were people who went to the hospital, but 90% of those people had been playing drinking games behind closed doors - ie sitting for a long period of time w/out moving. I don't think this is a universal solution, my college had a unique segment of the population, but I do think it is something to learn from.

This guy is amazing
http://www.geocities.com/mikegreeny/Greenys
Mike Green talks to EVERY freshman class at my college. He does great things about awareness and reminding people to pay attention. Where I would reccomend David Stollman for a great Recruitment Prog, I would reccomdend Greeny for a great drinking program, I believe that his program is truly that powerful. I saw him three times in college (as a Frosh, an OL and an RA) everytime I got something from it.

they need to make drinking legal younger so people won't binge drink


I didn't drink that often in college, but I did drink at 8 drinks every time I drank. By jr year that was around 3 or 4 times aweek.

That ruined my liver, and now I bleed everytime I wipe my ass.

Well not every time, but tell them everytime for dramatic effect.

There you go, PSKadvisor. Tell your chapters that, that should cut em down. My story has served as a good example to my chapter.

Seriously, chill when you drink or end up with bloody tp.

That may well be true in Northern Ireland, but I can tell you there is DEFINITELY a strong culture of binge drinking in many parts of England, and far too much antisocial behaviour as a result.

A typical night out in Bedford, for me, is a night IN. Why? Because I am sick to death of being too scared to walk down the High Street which is usually full of broken glass, smelly kebabs and people falling over everywhere -- and of course all of the random fighting isn't exactly very nice either. The police are nowhere to be found. A night out in London is no better, because then I have to face the "vomit comet" train back home with the nasty little thugs who get their kicks out of violence and threats. Nice.....

Did You ever go over to The Prospect of Whitby Pub, I beleive.

Damn was that an experience to say the least. On the Thames, but had to go by many Junk Yards and pissed off big dogs snarling!

Thank god, got the last ride on the Underground to get back to where I was staying.

Edited to see someone knows about drinking In Britian and how they do!

I don't know what this thread is really about, but just to be clear, I'm for it, pro-binge drinking that is.